Pages

Monday, October 15, 2012

Homeward Bound Chooses Blu Homes for Homeless

Homeward Bound of Marin, CA announced it will be partnering
with Blu Homes — an innovative young company based in Vallejo,
CA that makes attractive, high-quality prefab
homes — on its planned OmaVillage housing project for the homeless in Novato.

Homeward Bound, a Novato-based nonprofit that operates
Marin's three homeless shelters as well as providing transitional housing,
plans to build 14 compact one- and two-bedroom family homes at 5394 Nave Drive,
where Ohloff Recovery Programs used to operate a 30-bed residential program for
people recovering from substance abuse.

The new homes would be rented to low-income, formerly
homeless Marin families with children. Homeward Bound submitted building plans
for the project to the city of Novato
earlier this month. So far, Homeward Bound has raised $1 million of the $3
million it will need to complete the project.

"Yes they are prefab, but they're as good a quality as
you can get," said Paul Fordham, Homeward Bound's deputy director.

Blu Homes was launched in 2008 by Bill Haney, an
environmental entrepreneur, and Maura McCarthy, a venture capitalist with a
background in modular housing. All of Blu's homes are designed and built
off-site in the company's 250,000-square-foot factory in Vallejo. Blu's computer-modeled, steel-framed
homes use a trade-marked folding technology that makes them economical to
transport and quick to set up.